Spinel: The Hidden Gem in the Jewellery World

Spinel is a gemstone that is not well known by the public despite its beauty and wide range of interesting colours. It's a stone that is one of the earliest stones discovered by man but weren't differentiated as its own unique gemstone until 1783 with many early discovered rubies being spinels. The biggest culprit of this is the Black Prince's Ruby, which adorns the Imperial State Crown and one of the Crown Jewels and is in fact a Spinel! This is because spinels are a good ruby look alike. While they don’t truly match the deep red that rubies can have, they do get close to colour. They also have the same reaction to UV and through a Chelsea filter, which is due to the presence of chromium. For a savvy gemmologist, they also have very similar spectrums. Their major difference is that rubies are harder (9 on the Mohs scale) and rubies are doubly refractive.

Spinel, on the Mohs hardness scale sports an 8 which is comparable to Topaz and is considered quite hard and ready for everyday wear. Its colour range is also quite large, being able to be various shades of reds, purples, blues, black and even green! 

As a stone to consider for your next piece, it is a perfect choice if you're looking for something like sapphire or ruby but aren't ready just yet to pay the sapphire and ruby prices. It is a stone that is very near and dear to the hearts of all of us at McLean & Co and we want it to get more attention in the jewellery world. If you love it as much as we do, feel free to contact us or book an appointment to make a custom piece with your very own spinel.